2026 Star Festival Prompt
Skyfall (12) : Giant walls of clouds hover low above Destiny City, as if weighed down by the immense amount of water they are carrying. The air is cool, electric, and ominous, churning more like the ocean than the sky. And then, the clouds seem to collapse under their own weight. Dark masses spill from the sky in great, twisting columns of mist, stretching down towards the streets below. They descend like hands stretching from the heavens, enormous enough to swallow half a city block. Anyone caught within the descending clouds will find themselves surrounded by a frigid mist and powerful winds pushing down upon them. Visibility drops to almost nothing. The clouds spill over you, around you, like a waterfall, tugging at clothes and disrupting all sense of direction. Most people stumble out cold, soaked, and disoriented--and, sometimes, they don't even come out at the same place they went in. More than once, someone has disappeared in the cloud, only to wind up across town. Within minutes, the cloud pillars shrink, twisting like dying tornadoes, and drift back into the sky as though nothing happened at all.
Kissling was out on patrol and had just rescued an amber star charm from the gutter when it began to pour. Sheets of rain came rushing down to drench the Dark Mirror Senshi and he ran to the nearest store front in the hopes of finding shelter from torrents of water. Before he could, however, it almost felt like a new wave of rain descended upon him with mist so thick he couldn't see his surroundings. He became disoriented and his clothes were thoroughly soaked. Despite it being summer, the strange weather quickly had Kissling shivering hard and confused as he tried to reorient himself, but he had trouble seeing anything to figure out where he was.
Feeling like he was Dorothy caught up in a crazy weather phenomenon like the tornado that swept through Kansas, Kissling knew a tornado wasn't exactly the same as the storm he found himself stuck in, but in a few ways, it almost seemed worse. He couldn't tell where he was or where he was going and he was afraid to move anywhere for fear of perhaps walking into traffic or off a cliff or bridge or somewhere else he could have ended up in serious danger. As he looked around, he found a little bird close by his foot that appeared to have been knocked out of the sky by the vicious winds. Kissling quickly picked it up and cradled it, trying to shield it from the storm.
When the strange freak weather finally appeared to settle down a few minutes later, the Dark Mirror Senshi found himself and the little bird in a strange place. It appeared to be a tropical area of some kind with tropical trees and foliage of all kinds. Had he ended up in some kind of jungle?
Since he could finally see where he was going, he cautiously stepped forward only to find his shoe sinking into water that had looked solid due to the buildup of green algae or moss or something growing on the top of it. Quickly he snatched his foot back and glanced around again. Something had moved out the corner of his eye and the little bird in his possession chirped feebly.
Suddenly, a snap of jaws behind him alerted him to the presence of an enormous reptile. Kissling yelped and the bird twittered in alarm as the senshi lept a foot into the air and landed on a stone that just barely crested the water in front of him. He quickly hopped from stone to stone until he reached solid ground and discovered by the water...a sign?
It had information about a crocodile.
He was in a crocodile enclosure at Destiny City's zoo.
Filled with dread and horror, Kissling quickly ran over to the nearest wall and used his parkour skills and the surrounding foliage to make his way up and over it to he other side. He had no desire to be stuck in the crocodile habitat any longer than he had to.
The bird in his arms fluttered and struggled to break free of his grip, so he let ut go launching it into the sky where it happily spread its wings and flew away.
Smiling as he watched it fly off into the sunset, he wondered just what kind of storm they had experienced to have caused them to end up in a zoo enclosure, but whatever it was, he was glad it was over.
Now he just needed to go home and get warm and dry so he didn't catch cold.
Quote:
((The End))
